Serbia pledges more funds for Kosovo Serbs

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced Friday a “significant increase” in financial aid for ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo.

The promise came as Kosovo authorities are moving to dismantle a so-called parallel system of social services and political offices backed by the Serbian government for Kosovo’s ethnic minority Serb population.

“We are going to significantly and dramatically increase our aid and our support,” Vucic said at a press conference.

Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.

Kosovo, which is ethnically majority Albanian, declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to acknowledge.

In recent weeks Kosovo has raided municipal offices and post offices used to receive funds, including pensions, and to transfer money to financial institutions in Serbia.

It has also made the euro the only legal currency in Kosovo, effectively outlawing the use of the Serbian dinar.

Vucic said the authorities wanted “to make people’s lives as difficult as possible, for Serbs in Kosovo, to destroy them economically and socially”.

He said administrative offices would be opened on the Serbian side of the border where ethnic Serbs could withdraw salaries and financial aid, and file administrative requests.

“All the 5,800 people [working for the Serbian offices in Kosovo] will continue to receive their salaries. They won’t be late by even an hour,” Vucic added.

He also promised an imminent law to raise financial aid for Serbs in Kosovo, including a monthly stipend of around 43 euros ($48) for nearly 15,000 Serbian students.

Around 100,000 ethnic Serbs live in Kosovo according to recent estimates, though the figure is hard to verify since many Serbs have boycotted recent census counts. (BSS/AFP)